Trouble in the MooT

What's in the box

and who is Ovilar Bendt

28

JAN/17

The adventurers took their cart of bandits and books and box and first stopped at the shrine to bind and clean up any scratches they had. Ovilar stayed at the shrine while the rest continued to the inn. Natina, Salvik, and Old Man Rheinhardt continued on to Natina’s newly inherited office with the books to pour over their contents.

The book “Ciphers and codecs” seemed to be written in a foreign language (later found to be Strigoi, an old Stirland script), but even when the language was learned, the order of the words made no sense.
“History of the People of Averland and Stirland” was just that at first glance. History and maps of wars and border skirmishes fought in this region over the past 250 years.
“Houses of the Empire”, a who’s who of the Empire. Houses, their crests and sigils and where they hail from. One of these sigils looks kind of like 1/2 of the symbol on the coin and gravestone found in Aver March. House Zhent of Stirland.
“One Foot in the Grave”, grim stories of events concerning Sylvania.

By that time, the rest of the group had showed up to share the information and loot they had found. Geddragg managed to open the puzzle box and let gas escape in the room. Salvik must be particularly sensitive to it because he passed out again. The acid covered contents were dumped into the ashes in the fire to neutralize the acid as much as possible.

While that was going on, Gozbert found a journal of Sty Lum’s titled?
“Who’s Who of the Grand County of The Mootland”
a short history of The Moot
A Journal by Sty Lum, Constable of Grunhugel

The bookmark had lettering on it described as Dwarven Letters, but not Dwarven words.

This all took several hours and it was past sunset, Gozbert and Salvik heard a noise from in the back of the jail and went to discover a burning, smoking ball that had been dropped in through the barred window of the cell. As the crew reacted they discovered the front door barred from the outside. Quick wits and actions covered the fire with wet wool blankets and the side door was unbarricaded for an escape. A crowd was starting to assemble outside due to the black smoke coming out of the jail. The adventurers played the incident down. Most of the townsfolk returned to their homes, but Ovilar arrived from the shrine asking if any help was needed. The offer was declined and Ovilar went away.
Old man Rheinhardt thought he noticed something on Ovilar’s robes as he turned to stride away. A dark smear, possibly tar. He told Natina, who had become the groups “leader” (she was the Constable, and they were but deputies) to softly spread the word and slipped out the back to tail Ovilar. The others in the group, as they learned this new information, remembered minor unusual things about Ovilar. Someone remembered that he had only been in Grunhugel only about a month. One remembered, or rather DIDN’T remember, this Shallya Priest never actually was seen praying during all the healing of party members. Another noted that he always wanted to be with the party as they investigated Sty’s murder. It appears that Ovilar was a wolf in Priest’s clothing and “Old Man” was tailing a possible murderer.
Rheinhardt followed the Priest to the shrine where he was overheard whispering to another person. This person, a human, left the shrine and headed toward the river … Rheinhardt followed. At the river, the man was seen to pull a small boat out of some bushy overgrowth, and paddle downstream and out of sight. The Old Man returned with the news. All seven stayed at the Constable’s overnight, uncomfortable and on high alert for another attempt.
In the morning, everyone quickly ate and Link and Salvik went on ahead to the shrine to “have their injuries checked” and to see if Ovilar was still there. Nobody was in the shrine, though it appeared that all of Ovilar’s belongings were still there. The rest caught up a short while later and they all headed to the river to “track” the human. It was a dreary, rainy morning and Rheinhardt led the part down the river bank until he smelled the smoke of a campfire. He went ahead and sure enough, there was a camp with half dozen figures around a campfire and some temporary shelters.
To make it short, the rest of the party wasn’t quite so silent and a skirmish broke out … some bad wounds and 10 minutes later, the adventurers prevailed, one “bandit” bound, the rest dead.

… and this is where we leave our heroes …

Comments

I forgot to mention the time in the constabulary that they tried to reconcile all the “clues” they had gotten so far, the books, the symbol on the coin, the book mark, the headstone, the journal, etc. They were sidetracked by the fire.